Contents

Background

The Asama class armored cruisers were the first pair of six cruisers
ordered from overseas shipyards after the First Sino-Japanese War as part
of the "Six-Six Program" (six battleships-six cruisers) intended to form the backbone of the
Imperial Japanese Navy.
Construction of the Asama-class ships began as a private
venture by the British shipbuilder Armstrong
Whitworth of Elswick, for projected export
business, and it was fortuitous for the company that the Japanese
navy had a specification which required only slight modifications
to the initial design. At the time of their completion, the
Asama-class cruisers were considered the fastest; most
heavily armed and most heavily armored cruisers in the world;
however, extremely fast development of technology, weaponry and
armor in this field of ship design meant that that the supremacy of
this design was short.

Design

As depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1902

8 inch gun turret layout

The hull of the Asama class cruiser was a typical flush
deck with high freeboard
to improve seaworthiness. The design still came with a ram attached to the bow. The 45-caliber 203 mm main guns
were mounted in twin gun
turrets fore and aft. Each could fire a 113-kilogram
(250 lb) shell at the rate of two per minute over a range of
18,000 metres (20,000 yd). The turrets were capable of
150 degree rotation left and right, and the guns could be elevated
to 30 degrees. The secondary side-mounted 40-caliber, 152 mm
rapid fire guns had a range of 10,000 yards (9,100 m),
and could fire at the rate of five shells per minute (up to seven
per minute for a very skilled gun crew).

Propulsion was by two vertical triple
expansion steam engines, two shafts, with 12 boilers, yielding
a speed of 21.5 knots and a range of 7,000 nautical
miles (13,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h) based on a
1,409 ton load of coal.

Ships in
class

Two Asama class cruisers were purchased from Armstrong
Whitworth. They proved to have the longest operational life of any
vessels in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Both were scrapped after the
end of World War
II.

Ordered in 1897, launched 22 March 1898, and completed 18 March
1899, the Asama participated in the Boxer
Rebellion, Russo-Japanese War and World War I. It later served
as a training ship, and stripped of its weaponry, as a floating
barracks. It survived World War II, and was scrapped in
1947.

Ordered in 1897, launched 6 July 1898, and completed 18 May
1899, the Tokiwa participated in the Russo-Japanese War
and World War I. It later served as a training ship, and was then
converted into a minelayer and subsequently saw service in the
Pacific War. Beached
after being damaged by an air attack on 9 August 1945, it was
scrapped in 1947.